Pale Blue Dot Page #6

---

DREW:

Because he’s awful? Because he’s

never been anything but horrible to

you? Because he terrifies our

children?

LAURA:

He’s my father.

DREW:

That’s even worse. He treats you

like garbage and all you ever do is

try to get his approval. You’re so

caught up trying to be daddy’s

little girl that you can’t see

daddy’s a f***ing a**hole.

LAURA:

I’m all he has.

DREW:

Fine. We’ll put him in a home.

LAURA:

Are you kidding me? He’d kill

himself before he’d let us do that.

DREW:

I’d say good riddance but, knowing

Wally, he’d probably try to take us

out first.

LAURA:

Yeah, he probably would.

30.

DREW:

Listen to you. Your father would

kill us before letting us put him

in a nursing home? That’s not

normal.

LAURA:

Who wants to be normal?

The argument still going, Laura and Drew enter-

INT. BETHESDA MARRIOTT BALLROOM - CONTINUOUS

Balloons arc the entrance along with a banner that reads

“Welcome Home, Frontier High Class of ‘84!” The room is full

of 38 year-olds catching up over alcoholic punch while a DJ

spins the likes of Toni Basil and The Vapors.

DREW:

Look can we talk about this later?

For now, I’d really like to just

enjoy being the astronaut’s wife.

But Laura’s already dropped the argument, stopping short in

the ballroom entrance. This is all a little more than she’s

prepared for.

LAURA:

Wow. It’s been a long time.

Drew smiles. He leans in to kiss Laura’s forehead.

DREW:

Well, they won’t think that when

they see you. You haven’t changed a

bit since the day I met you.

Laura smiles, trying to put on a brave face. They approach a

table lined with name tags where a VOLUNTEER watches them

with an unsettling smile.

LAURA:

It’s Laura and Drew-

NAMETAG VOLUNTEER

Oh stop. I know exactly who you

are.

The Volunteer hands them their badges.

NAMETAG VOLUNTEER (CONT’D)

And let me be the first to say how

proud you’ve made us.

31.

LAURA:

Well, thank you. That’s awful nice

of you.

NAMETAG VOLUNTEER

Of course. You’re an inspiration to

us all.

Laura turns away from the table. She rolls her eyes at Drew

but he doesn’t think the Volunteer’s sentiment is overblown

in the least. Laura really is an inspiration.

INT. FRONTIER HIGH REUNION - LATER

Laura and Drew stand in a crowd of her former classmates.

People are actually jockeying for position, trying to get

into Laura’s circle.

Everyone is here to see her.

LAURA:

I don’t know. You train and you

train and then, one day, you’re up

there. You’re floating around in

space and...

...Laura makes eye contact with one of the men in the circle,

HAL FREELY. He’s handsome and slim and he nods to her,

noticing the eye contact...

...it throws her off her game for a moment...

LAURA (CONT’D)

...you’re not even sure it’s real.

It can’t be. Who would let you up

there? How can this be your life?

INT. FRONTIER HIGH REUNION - LATER

The crowd watches a slideshow of old pictures on a giant

projector. A picture of Laura, nerdy with braces and giving a

thumbs up comes on and the place goes nuts.

Laura and Drew are watching from the back, she leans over to

him, whispering:

LAURA:

What a dork.

DREW:

Hey! That’s my woman you’re talking

about.

32.

Drew waves a mock fist at Laura. She laughs and shakes her

head.

INT. FRONTIER HIGH REUNION - LATER

Drew’s alone, whistling to himself as he refills his and

Laura’s punch cups.

As he turns from the punch bowl, a DRUNK DUDE takes him in a

massive bear hug, lifting him up in the air and spilling

punch everywhere.

DRUNK DUDE:

Whoa! Freddie! It’s been too long,

brother.

DREW:

Uh, I think you’ve got the wrong

guy.

DRUNK DUDE:

You’re not Freddie?

Drew points to his name tag.

DREW:

Nope. I’m Drew. I didn’t even go to

school here. My wife did. Laura

Pepper.

The Drunk Dude’s jaw drops. This is way better than finding

Freddie, whoever he is.

DRUNK DUDE:

Whoa! Awesome!

Drew nods. Yep. It is awesome. He’s having the time of his

life.

EXT. BETHESDA MARRIOTT - LATER

Laura leans against the building smoking a cigarette. She’s

alone, staring up at the stars, getting a much needed break

until...

HAL:

Laura Vine.

...it’s Hal Freely, from earlier, with a big smile on his

face-- she’s just the person he was looking for. Now, without

Drew around, there’s a familiarity between these two, a long

history.

33.

LAURA:

Pepper. Laura Pepper.

HAL:

I saw that. It’s still Freely here.

Not that the man changes his name

if he’s married. Just, you know,

I’m not married.

Hal holds up his hand, providing the lack of a ring as proof.

LAURA:

Hi, Hal.

HAL:

I mean, full disclosure, I’m

divorced.

LAURA:

It’s okay. I’d heard.

Laura stubs out her cigarette, ready to get back inside if

this is the alternative. But Hal wants to talk:

HAL:

I guess word gets around, huh? How

about you? How’ve you been? What’ve

you made of yourself?

LAURA:

Don’t do that. You know what I do.

HAL:

Okay, okay. You’re a big shot

astronaut. Imagine that. Our Laura--

my Laura-- in outer space.

LAURA:

And back again.

Hal misinterprets Laura’s wistfulness. He leans in to kiss

her but Laura stops him. Before their lips can even touch,

she takes a step back and pushes him away.

LAURA (CONT’D)

Stop.

HAL:

I’m sorry. I don’t know what came

over me.

LAURA:

It’s okay. I get it. It’s just, I’m

happy now.

34.

This, much more than the fact that his ex-girlfriend has been

to space, seems to really blow Hal’s mind. In fact, he can’t

believe it:

HAL:

Really? That’s...you’re happy?

LAURA:

Yes.

HAL:

Wow.

Laura doesn’t say anything. Hal picks at the brick wall for a

quiet moment.

HAL (CONT’D)

Why’d I ever let you go?

LAURA:

It doesn’t matter.

HAL:

It does to me. You were crazy about

me, once. And I got bored of it. I

thought, when we left for college,

I could do better. You cried and

cried. You called my house at all

hours of the night. My mother was

so freaked out she wanted to change

our number. Do you remember what

you said?

LAURA:

Not really.

HAL:

You said I couldn’t do better than

you. You said you were the best

thing that ever happened to me.

LAURA:

Yikes.

HAL:

No. You were right.

Laura thinks about this for a moment. Then she smiles.

LAURA:

I know.

With that, Laura brushes past Hal and heads back in to:

35.

INT. FRONTIER HIGH REUNION - CONTINUOUS

Laura returns to the ballroom and finds Drew. She wraps her

arms around him, kisses him deeply, and takes her drink.

The class president, SAHAYA AHMED, is up on stage, giving a

big speech.

SAHAYA:

I don’t know about the rest of you,

but these last twenty years have

been full of some hard truths.

Like, maybe we don’t all get to

grow up and get married and have

three kids and that house with the

white picket fence. And we

definitely can’t eat a whole bag of

Oreos like we used to. And we’ve

all lost friends. There are people

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes